Luna

Future

My head did throb after Oliver's story. I couldn't get a handle on my thoughts. Oliver's story was too much to process all at once. My lungs closed up and panic invaded my body. It was all too much and it was impacting my body too much. The fact that my mother was alive, left me to rot on earth, and that she lived safely on the moon hit home. She had built an existence, a whole new life and all without me. In addition, she worked with the president, the man who rejected the normal population and whose lives were no longer worth anything. And then she sent a resistance on the moon. There was nothing left of my mother. I didn't recognize her at all in this. All the emotions welled up in my body. The anger and the fact that I had no control over the situation made me despondent. She left me behind. I felt hurt and alone. Ideally, I wanted to crawl into her arms, for her slim hand to stroke my head, to sniff her scent and for her to whisper in my ear that everything would be all right. We had only passed that stage by now. All I could cling to was the fact that I would leave this miserable place, earth. I had the chance to put something right and start a new life in a safe place, the moon. I put my head on my knees and tried to come to myself. I heard soft footsteps coming my way. I felt a slender hand on my back and Sabine sat down next to me. She rubbed my back reassuringly and a soothing feeling entered my body. "Darling, I've run a hot bath for you. I think it's time to get you out of these clothes and have a clean rinse. I put jasmine, raspberry and lavender in the bath for you." I lifted my head and looked straight into her loving eyes. She had remembered what my favorite scents were. I used to be at Oliver's a lot more often than I was at home. Sabine always had a whole rack full of different oils for the bath. When I was at Oliver's and he was still training, Sabine would fill up a bath for me with my favorite scents. She had always been a second mother to me. I poured her a grateful smile. She gently pulled me off the couch and together we walked inside. Sabine gently pushed open the bathroom door and the warmth met me. The bathroom had cream-colored tiles with old pink accents here and there. The tub was of an older metal type and there was an old pink mat underneath. The floor felt cold under my feet as I took off my "shoes. By now they were more broken than you could really call shoes. Sabine helped me remove my clothes and looked at me with concern. I looked at myself in the mirror. I knew there wasn't much left of me, yet it was still confronting. She rubbed my cheek and slowly turned me around. With a pin, she raised my hair and gently helped me into the tub. The warm water hugged me like a blanket; I hadn't experienced this in so long. Sabine gently pulled the bathroom door closed behind her as she walked out of the bathroom. 

Time passed and I carefully hoisted myself out of the tub. I looked at the grubby water that had come off me. From one of the closets I took a soft woolly towel, which I tied around my body. I looked in the mirror at all the bruises and scars. A thick red swollen scar ran under my collarbone to my armpit. I had had an argument with one of the women, she pulled me open with a dirty knife so the wound had never healed nicely. On the chair in the bathroom, Sabine had laid out clothes for me. There was a pair of straight jeans with a tear here and there and a thick light yellow sweater. My hair I had washed and the white glow slowly returned. I tied it into a ponytail with an elastic band. Carefully I walked into the living room and a delicious smell of food entered my nose. Sabine was in the kitchen cooking. "So, that looks much better" she said cheerfully and pointed to the table. I slid over to the wooden kitchen table and she set a plate of chicken soup and some bread in front of me. Homemade and hot nutritious food I haven't eaten in a very long time. Oliver joined us with a plate of chicken soup and bread. "We are traveling to Winter in a few hours; we will arrive there tomorrow. We spend the night in Autumn at a safehouse." I nod as I wolf down my food. My body is still in survival mode and every edible thing I work my way into. "Your stuff I already packed for you and is already ready in the car." At this point I can't get much sense out of my mouth, so all I do is nod.